Steel pallet having paper top plate

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a steel pallet having a paper top plate which can be conveniently exchanged, easily carried with its light weight, and can be mass-produced, thereby lowering the manufacturing cost, by forming the top plate so as to have a three layer structure of an upper corrugated board, a honeycomb panel, and a lower corrugated board. The steel pallet comprises: a paper top plate in which a plurality of corrugated boards are stacked; an upper steel support plate supporting an lower portion of the paper top plate, in which a plurality of first transverse members and a plurality of first longitudinal members are formed in rows and columns; a plurality of rectangular steel column members bonded to the bottom surface of the upper steel support plate; and a lower steel support plate bonded to bottom surfaces of the column members, in which a plurality of second transverse members and a plurality of second longitudinal members are formed in rows and columns. The paper top plate has a structure in which an upper corrugated board, a honeycomb panel, and a lower corrugated board are sequentially stacked, and the upper and lower corrugated boards use double wall corrugated boards.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the invention

The present invention relates to a steel pallet having a paper topplate, and more particularly to a steel pallet having a paper top platewhich can be conveniently exchanged, easily carried with its lightweight, and can be mass-produced, thereby lowering the manufacturingcost, by forming the top plate so as to have a three layer structure ofan upper corrugated board, a honeycomb panel, and a lower corrugatedboard.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Generally, pallets are used as means for supporting lower portions offreight when the freight is loaded or stored for transporting thefreight between manufacturing lines and warehouses or betweenmanufacturing lines in a factory. The pallets should be compatible withfreight transportation means such as railroads, freight vehicles,containers, and the like to transport freight promptly. However, sincethe pallets are not actually compatible with those transportation means,there are occasions in which some enterprises incorrectly use palletswhich are intended only for enterprise use or for separate disposablepallets. Therefore, recently, efforts have been made to inform the fieldand supply the pallets, and ultimately for standardization. Further,enterprises are also finding ways to decrease inefficiency due todifferences in the number of pallets used in high and low demand seasonsand to decrease the stored number of empty pallets.

The pallet material currently used in Korea can be classified into fourcategories of wool, plastic, steel, and paper, which are also providedin Korean Industrial Standards. However, most of the pallet materialsused in Korea are wood and plastic, and steel pallets are used extremelyrarely.

However, the structural strength of the wood pallet is so vulnerablethat when the weight of the loaded freight is excessive, the wood palletis apt to be broken. Further, the plastic pallet needs a large mold tobe manufactured, the cost thereof is high, and the plastic pallet doesnot have a satisfactory structure.

In order to supplement the above-mentioned problems, a steel pallet inwhich metal plates having predetermined widths and bent so as to haveprominences and depressions are supported by a plurality of beams andare engaged at the upper and lower portions thereof by welding or bolts,has been suggested. On the other hand, a paper pallet, which is usefulfor environment protection, can be reused with collected corrugatedboards, and is light, has been suggested.

However, the conventional steel pallet is too heavy compared with thepaper pallet, and the paper pallet is so vulnerable to moisture or thelike that the overall strength thereof is weak.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve theabove-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art, and an object ofthe present invention is to provide a steel pallet having a paper topplate wherein since only the paper top plate thereof uses a three layerstructure with the corrugated boards stacked, the paper top plate can beeasily exchanged or reused and can be easily carried with its lightweight.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a steel pallethaving a paper top plate wherein since support plates are formed ofsteel coated with melt zinc, the durability thereof is excellent and theenvironment can be kept sanitary.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a steelpallet having a paper top plate wherein the quality thereof is uniformdue to automatic manufacture and which can be mass-produced, therebylowering the manufacturing cost and can be reused.

In order to accomplish these objects, there is provided a steel palletcomprising: a paper top plate in which a plurality of corrugated boardsare stacked; an upper steel support plate supporting a lower portion ofthe paper top plate, in which a plurality of first transverse membersand a plurality of first longitudinal members are formed in rows andcolumns; a plurality of rectangular steel column members bonded to thebottom surface of the upper steel support plate; and a lower steelsupport plate bonded to bottom surfaces of the column members, in whicha plurality of second transverse members and a plurality of secondlongitudinal members are formed in rows and columns.

Preferably, the paper top plate has a structure in which an uppercorrugated board, a honeycomb panel, and a lower corrugated board aresequentially stacked.

Preferably, the upper and lower corrugated boards use double wallcorrugated boards formed by attaching single-faced corrugated boards todouble-faced corrugated boards.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will be more apparent from the following detailed descriptiontaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view for showing a steel pallet having a papertop plate according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a paper top plate according tothe present invention; and

FIG. 3 is a view for showing the engaged state of a paper top plateaccording to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will bedescribed with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view for showing a steel pallet having a papertop plate according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is an explodedperspective view of a paper top plate according to the presentinvention. FIG. 3 is a view for showing the engaged state of a paper topplate according to the present invention. For convenience sake, FIGS. 1to 3 will be referred to together in the following description.

First, a steel pallet 1 according to the present invention includes apaper top plate 10 formed by stacking paper materials such as corrugatedboards or the like. Although it is preferable that upper and lower steelsupport plates 20 and 40 supporting the top plate 10 and rectangularcolumn members 30 are formed of steel coated with melt zinc, thematerial thereof is not limited in the present invention and any steelmaterial can be used. The column members 30 preferably have rectangularcross-sections, but can have circular or any polygonal cross-sectionsand the shapes of the column members 30 are not limited in the presentinvention. The upper and lower steel support plates 20 and 40 and therectangular column members 30 are formed by bending rectangularzinc-coated steel plates with a forming machine, and are engaged by aengaging means such as rivets or the like.

As shown in FIG. 1, the steel pallet 1 having the paper top plate 10according to the present invention includes the paper top plate 10 inwhich corrugated boards are stacked so as to have multi-layers, theupper steel support plate 20 supporting the lower portion of the papertop plate 10, in which a plurality of first transverse members (notprovided with a reference numeral) and a plurality of first longitudinalmembers (not provided with a reference numeral) are formed in rows andcolumns, a plurality of rectangular steel column members 30 bonded tothe bottom surface of the upper steel support plate 20, and the lowersteel support plate 40 bonded to the bottom surfaces of the columnmembers 30, in which a plurality of second transverse members (notprovided with a reference numeral) and a plurality of secondlongitudinal members (not provided with a reference numeral) are formedin rows and columns.

The paper top plate 10 is bonded by an adhesive to the upper steelsupport plate 20 including the first transverse members and the firstlongitudinal members. The paper top plate 10 has a structure in which anupper corrugated board 11, a honeycomb panel 12, and a lower corrugatedboard 13 are sequentially stacked. Although the present inventionsuggests that the top plate have a stacked structure of three layers,the top plate can have more than or less than three layers and are notrestricted to the stacked structure.

Preferably, the upper and lower corrugated boards 11 and 13 use doublewall corrugated boards (a thickness of about 5 mm) formed by attachingsingle-faced corrugated boards to double-faced corrugated boards, and,for example, are formed of corrugated boards of a combination of A fluteand B flute, a combination of B flute and B flute, or a combination of Eflute and B flute. Although the present invention preferably employsdouble wall corrugated boards of the combination of B flute and B flute,the corrugated boards are not restricted in the present invention anddouble-faced corrugated boards or triple wall corrugated boards can beused.

Further, the honeycomb panel 12 formed between the upper and lowercorrugated boards 11 and 13 is named after its shape similar to ahexagonal honeycomb. The honeycomb panel 12 has a finite continuousstructure of hexagonal hollow columns, and is formed of cells and cores.A sandwich panel using the honeycomb structure is formed so as to haveseveral ten times the strength of and about ten times the bendingstrength of a conventional panel. In other words, the honeycomb panel isformed by bonding a standard paper sheet with a common adhesive so as tohave a structure of honeycomb shape. Such a honeycomb panel is wellknown in the art, further detailed description thereof will be omitted.

When the steel pallet including the top plate in which the plurality ofcorrugated boards are stacked is actually used, after freight,electronic appliances, or the like are loaded on the paper top plate,they are bound by a binding means to be carried or preserved.

According to the steel pallet having the paper top plate according tothe present invention, since only the top plate of the steel pallet usesa three layer structure in which the corrugated boards are stacked, thetop plate can be easily exchanged or reused and can be carried easilywith its light weight.

Further, since the support plates are formed of steel coated with themelt zinc, the durability thereof is excellent and the environment canbe kept sanitary.

Furthermore, the quality of the product is uniform due to automaticmanufacture, and the products can be mass-produced, thereby lowering themanufacturing cost and can be reused.

Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has beendescribed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art willappreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions arepossible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the inventionas disclosed in the accompanying claims.

1. A steel pallet comprising: a paper top plate in which a plurality ofcorrugated boards are stacked; an upper steel support plate supporting alower portion of the paper top plate, in which a plurality of firsttransverse members and a plurality of first longitudinal members areformed in rows and columns; a plurality of rectangular steel columnmembers bonded to the bottom surface of the upper steel support plate;and a lower steel support plate bonded to bottom surfaces of the columnmembers, in which a plurality of second transverse members and aplurality of second longitudinal members are formed in rows and columns.2. A steel pallet according to claim 1, wherein the paper top plate hasa structure in which an upper corrugated board, a honeycomb panel, and alower corrugated board are sequentially stacked.
 3. A steel palletaccording to claim 2, wherein the upper and lower corrugated boards usedouble wall corrugated boards formed by attaching single-facedcorrugated boards to double-faced corrugated boards.